Metroid Prime: Trilogy Review [Wii]

14 Sep 2009 at 13:31:05 by Chris Schilling
Systems used to review this title: (WII)

It's not quite Nintendo's Orange Box, but it's not far off. Received wisdom dictated that the likelihood of the company releasing all three Metroid games in a collection with Wii enhancements for the first two was far too logical to ever happen. But while Japanese gamers have had to put up with two separate New Play Control releases for Prime and Echoes, us lucky Westerners get a box-set that seems to have come straight from the pages of a forum thread titled ‘ITT We List Our Dream Games'.

Amazing to think Prime's now seven years old, especially when you boot it up again and feel those memories flooding back as if your last playthrough were yesterday. The spaceship escape, the rain dripping on Samus's visor in the Tallon Overworld, the Chozo Ruins and Flaahgra, the fire-and-icedouble-punch of Magmoor and Phendrana (the latter's vistas still  inspiring awe seven years on), the unnerving appearance of the Chozo Ghosts, the ridiculously difficult Omega Pir-oh, wait, I've killed him first go.

Yes, that's right - on the default difficulty, Prime's a little easier than it was. Perhaps part of the reason I bested my former arch-nemesis so easily was the practice over the years I've had of leaping shockwave ground attacks (a tactic so common among Corruption's bosses, it's practically a parody). But then it's clear that Nintendo has tweaked the game to make it a little more forgiving to series newcomers. Given how some of the series' guardian encounters are often little more than wars of attrition -testing how often you can press the fire button before your thumb succumbs to crippling cramps - it's a boon, though seasoned players might want to switch to Veteran mode immediately to provide more of a lasting challenge.

Prime might be a game designed around the GameCube controller, but after playing it with Corruption's control scheme you won't want to go back. Movement and aiming just seems more fluid, which is perhaps why the glacial pacing of the original seems to have been stepped up a notch. Aiming can still be fine-tuned when you're locked on, meaning weak spots can be more easily targeted. Beam-swapping doesn't seem quite so elegant, however. While switching between visors seems simple enough - just press the minus button and  aim for the appropriate segment of the HUD - there's a bit of mental rewiring to be done to twist your thumb to the right to press the plus button when you need the Wave beam. The more dextrously-digited might not take issue with this, but my own thumb gravitated much more naturally to the left. Without the beam-stacking of Corruption, it feels a little less elegant, and is the one area where the Cube controller works better, the C-stick instantly flicking tothe correct beam. Yet if you've got a spare Wavebird and fancy trying it out with the old control scheme, sadly you can't. It's remote only. Understandable, given that the HUD has been completely redesigned to fit the new scheme, but a little disappointing all the same. Ditto for the cut-scenes, which are unacceptably fuzzy - a by-product of the Cube's video compression, but once again, it's something which surely wouldn't have cost that much to rectify.Both Prime and Echoes benefit from the Achievement-like rewards added in Corruption, this time offering credits for finding Artifacts or Keys as well as defeating bosses. These can be spent in the main menu to unlock bonuses, though there's little here you won't have seen before.

All ...

Comment